The Tawana Brawley case was a 1987 racial hoax in which a fifteen-year-old Black girl from Wappingers Falls, New York, claimed she had been abducted and raped by a group of white men, one carrying a police badge; a seven-month grand jury investigation concluded the attack never happened, and the prosecutor she and her advisers falsely accused later won a defamation judgment against them. The case consumed national attention for nearly a year, produced one of the longest civil trials in New York history, and followed its participants for the rest of their lives.
What Tawana Brawley Alleged in 1987
On November 28, 1987, Brawley was found outside the Pavilion Condominiums in Wappingers Falls. She was wrapped in a plastic garbage bag, smeared with feces, with portions of her hair cut off, her clothing partly burned, and the letters “KKK” and a racial slur written on her torso. She said six white men had abducted her four days earlier and sexually assaulted her repeatedly, and she indicated that at least one of them had a police badge.
The Reverend Al Sharpton and two attorneys, Alton H. Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason, became her public advocates. They named specific people as her attackers, most prominently Steven Pagones, an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County. They also named a state trooper and Harry Crist Jr., a part-time police officer who had died by suicide shortly after the alleged attack. The advisers told Brawley and her family not to cooperate with investigators, arguing that a white-run justice system would never treat her fairly. Perry McKinnon, a former Sharpton aide, quoted Maddox saying, “I’m not going to pursue it legally; I’m going to pursue it politically.”
What the Grand Jury Found
Governor Mario Cuomo appointed New York Attorney General Robert Abrams as special prosecutor. The grand jury was impaneled on February 29, 1988. Over seven months, it heard from more than 180 witnesses, reviewed over 6,000 pages of testimony, and examined more than 250 pieces of physical evidence. Brawley and her family never cooperated.
On October 6, 1988, the grand jury issued a 170-page report concluding that no sexual assault had occurred and that Brawley’s condition was consistent with self-infliction. The forensic record was unambiguous:
- Rape kit results were negative. There was no sperm, semen, blood, or foreign pubic hair on her body or clothing, and no trauma to her mouth, rectum, or vaginal area. After a claimed four days of captivity, she showed no signs of exposure, malnourishment, or dehydration.
- Charred cotton fibers were found on the carpet of Apartment 19A, where Brawley had apparently stayed during the days she was reported missing. The same fibers appeared under her fingernails and on gloves found with her, and the writing on her body was consistent with moistened charred cotton residue.
- The feces on her clothing contained dog hairs matching a dog from a neighboring apartment, whose hairs were also found inside Apartment 19A.
- Witnesses testified to seeing Brawley step into the garbage bag in which she was ultimately discovered. Her denim jacket was found in the washing machine of the apartment she had been staying in.
The grand jury cleared Steven Pagones entirely, citing thirteen witnesses who accounted for his whereabouts throughout the relevant period. The report recommended that the bar association take action against Maddox and Mason for making deliberately false statements.
Why She May Have Done It
In April 1989, Daryl Rodriguez, identified as Brawley’s boyfriend at the time, told Newsday that Brawley had confided the story was invented. According to Rodriguez, Brawley and her mother concocted the tale to avoid punishment from Ralph King, Glenda Brawley’s boyfriend and Tawana’s stepfather. Rodriguez said Brawley had been beaten by King the night she ran away and feared further violence. The plan, as he described it, was to make King “feel sorry for her and everything would be normal.” Rodriguez said Brawley devised the idea to use feces and remove her hairpiece to simulate an attack.
A spokesman for Attorney General Abrams called Rodriguez “credible” and said his account corroborated what investigators had already concluded. Brawley denied the claims. She has never recanted, telling CBS News in 1997, “I’m not a liar and I’m not crazy.”
The Defamation Suit by Steven Pagones
In October 1988, shortly after the grand jury report, Pagones filed a $395 million defamation lawsuit against Brawley, Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason. The trial before New York State Supreme Court Justice S. Barrett Hickman stretched over eight months, driven by lengthy cross-examinations. Pagones spent twenty-four days on the witness stand. Brawley never testified; Judge Hickman refused to allow her to take the stand on the underlying questions.
The jury of two Black and four white members was sequestered on July 10, 1998, and deliberated for three days. On July 14, 1998, it found all three advisers liable. Sharpton was found liable for seven defamatory statements, Maddox for two, and Mason for one.
On July 30, 1998, the jury set total damages at $345,000, far less than Pagones had sought. Jurors said they wanted to hold the defendants accountable without financially destroying them. Sharpton was ordered to pay $65,000, Mason $185,000, and Maddox $95,000. Judge Hickman separately entered a default judgment of $185,000 against Brawley, citing her role as the person most responsible for the hoax and her refusal to participate in the trial.
What Happened to the Advisers
Sharpton’s judgment was paid first. Supporters raised the money on his behalf, and Pagones received the final installment of roughly $88,000, including interest, in early June 2001. Sharpton has never formally apologized, saying, “What do I have to apologize for? I believed her.” He has said the experience taught him to avoid personal attacks in his activism, and he went on to run for president in 2004.
Maddox had his law license suspended in May 1990 after refusing to answer misconduct charges tied to the Brawley case. He was later disbarred for failing to produce evidence he claimed would substantiate Brawley’s allegations. He initially vowed not to pay “one red penny,” but the state’s highest court declined to hear his appeal, and by November 2001 he had paid his $95,000 judgment in full. He died on April 23, 2023, at age seventy-seven in a Bronx nursing home.
Mason was disbarred in 1995 on grounds that reached well beyond the Brawley matter: a state appellate court upheld sixty-six of seventy-one misconduct charges against him, including fee gouging and theft from low- and moderate-income clients. His wages were garnished to pay Pagones, but collection moved slowly. As of June 2001, he had paid just over $5,600 of the $185,000 he owed. He later became an ordained minister.
Where Tawana Brawley Is Now
Brawley withdrew from public view after the grand jury report. She converted to Islam, and Louis Farrakhan gave her the name Maryam Muhammad. She attended Howard University and eventually settled in Claremont, Virginia. As of 2007, she was working at a nursing home under the name Tawana Thompson, the name on her nursing license.
She was the most difficult debtor to collect from. In December 2012, the New York Post reported her location, and Pagones filed papers in a Virginia court to garnish her wages at The Laurels of Bon Air, a nursing home where she was employed. A court ordered her to pay $627 per month. By August 2013, she had paid just over $3,700, roughly one percent of the more than $431,000 she owed once years of accumulated interest were factored in.
Pagones has said repeatedly that he cares less about the money than about a confession. In 2013, he told CNN he would forgive the remaining debt if Brawley told the truth and cleared his name. “I have been battling this since day one,” he said, “and it’s really all about telling the truth.”